Friday, 7 November 2014

CONSTRUCTION WEEK round-up

To round up this week's construction theme at home, Budsy invites the boys to look at some occupations relevant to the theme.

Yet another teachable moment presented itself when we had painters doing up a fresh coat of paint for all the blocks in our estate. Instead of telling the boys these foreign workers were strangers, Budsy invited them to look beyond the workers' race, culture and language.

We discussed how laborious these jobs were and how dangerous it was to be perched on swinging gondolas in the extreme weather conditions in Singapore & how our estate looks cleaner and brighter because of these people. We said hi to them when they painted outside our windows and the boys showed them the construction toys they were playing with. One painter even helped retrieve DD2's fallen butterfly sun catcher on the ledge of her window.

We observed together how exhausting it was for these cleaner workers to rake up dried leaves on the grass patches almost every other day, pile the leaves together and then bag them in large black bags that will head to the garbage area.

There was also the garbage truck drivers who clear our main rubbish disposal area and the auntie that wipes the lifts and mops floor after floor every single morning. They too help keep our estate clean. It is because of all this help we get from people around us who are often overlooked that we hardly have any pests crawling into our homes. Clean and green nation is a collective effort. Pssst, you can add that this works the same way at home too!

There are also the construction workers who are working hard on school upgrading works. The boys relish the opportunity to watch dump trucks go in and out of the construction area dumping sand, excavators scraping, lifting and leveling piles of sand and the cement mixers churning out the cement over the sand. We discuss why hard hats are important for these workers & we see how they take quick breaks eating really quickly at the void deck, how some of them pray on towels before their breaks end and how they merely use the cold, hard floors of the void deck for their forty winks.

Budsy took the opportunity to introduce the boys to signs around us. Signs help us to be wary of danger zones, some display standard rules for safety reasons and others are for guiding us to the right directions. The boys love it! They get all excited to be the first to tell Budsy what each sign meant.

Budsy loves teachable moments... for these moments are precious. As parents, use these opportunities to widen their knowledge about things that go on around us. If we take time to allow our children to do nothing but just observe our surrounding, that quiet moment itself will present many teachable moments.

Learning should not be bound to just books and educational resources. A true learning journey towards nurturing a wholesome child extends beyond literature and material possessions.

If we believe in life beyond academics, we can raise a child who can appreciate the little things in life and gradually embed values in them, in the hope that we raise them well enough to see them grow up; to be children of sound character. Together, we can mould all-rounder children towards a brighter future generation.